By Jim Dower: Heavyweight Eddie Chambers (35-1, 18 KO’s) put himself into the driver’s seat for a shot at IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko with a 12-round unanimous decision over Alexander Dimitrenko (29-1, 19 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Color Line Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Chambers came on after the 5th round dominating the action and dropped the 26-year-old Dimitrenko with a left hook that knocked Alexander’s mouthpiece out in the 10th.
In the last two rounds, Chambers beat Dimitrenko up with uppercuts to the head. After the fight, Dimitrenko looked bad, with both eyes swollen up. The judges’ scores it 117-109, 118-111 and 113-113. It’s a mystery as to what fight the last judge was watching because this was a clear cut victory for Chambers and there was nothing close about this fight.
While Dimitrenko did well in the first five rounds in which he was able to control the action with his jab, right hand and left hook, he faded badly after the fifth and Chambers took over from there with his harder combinations. Once he realized that Dimitrenko had no real power to speak of, Chambers crowded the Ukrainian and battered him with uppercuts and hooks at close range.
Dimitrenko often just covered up when Chambers would come in close and let him fire away instead of grabbing him in a clinch. This is something that Dimitrenko is going to need to change if he wants to be able to beat the better heavyweights in the division like Chambers.
Dimitrenko might need to find another trainer if his current trainer Fritz Sdunek isn’t teaching him how to control the distance properly against his shorter opponents. Dimitrenko looked very athletic in the first half of the fight, showing great movement if not power as he moved around the ring.
However, he kept his left hand down and his jab wasn’t nearly as hard as it needed to be to keep Chambers at a distance. Dimitrenko didn’t throw it nearly as often as he needed to if he wanted to try and keep Chambers from crowding him.
In the 6th, Chambers began to pressure Dimitrenko by moving within range and hitting him with short compact combinations to the head. Dimitrenko soon showed that he had no defense for an uppercut and was hit over and over by this punch without being able to block it. In the 7th, Chambers hurt Dimitrenko with a left to the middle of his back.
Dimitrenko acted as if he was hurt, leaning over the ropes and wincing in pain. The referee wasn’t buying his act and gave him a standing eight count. It wasn’t the first time that Dimitrenko went into the hurt act. He was nailed with a low blow earlier in the fight and walked around in pain for several moments afterwards. The punch was on the belt line, however, and not low.
Aside from a nice left hook from Dimitrenko in the 8th, Chambers battered him around the ring landing short punches in close,. In the 10th round, Chambers caught Dimitrenko with a perfect left hook that knocked him down and caused his mouthpiece to fall out. In the 11th and 12th, Dimitrenko took a lot of punishment from Chambers who went back to his uppercuts again and again until final bell.
This loss really showed that Dimitrenko isn’t ready for the big time as of yet. While he does have some good skills, he needs to learn a lot before he’s going to be good enough to beat the top rung of the heavyweight division.
He badly needs a new trainer like Emanuel Steward who can train him how to use his jab, control the distance between shorter fighters and keep them from getting in close like Chambers was able to do. I don’t have confidence that he’s going to be able to learn these things with current trainer, because he should have learned them already.
With the win, Chambers get a shot at Wladimir Klitschko. There is talk that Chambers will be trying to get a fight or two in between waiting for his fight with Klitschko. Chambers will have to be careful, because although he’s a good fighter, he’s still very vulnerable to being beaten.
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